Testing the world's blackest material in orbit

A cutting edge light
retardant coating designed to reduce the interference to the delicate
optical equipment mounted on space probes is being put through its
paces aboard the Kent Ridge 1 satellite, which launched into
low-Earth orbit (LEO) in Dec. 2015. Known as Vantablack S-VIS, it is hoped that the high
performance and versatility of the material will allow for the design
of lighter, more compact satellite hardware.

Star trackers are a
vital piece of equipment for any orbital or deep space exploration
mission hoping to accurately navigate the relative void beyond
Earth's protective shell. The equipment works by accurately
determining a spacecraft's position based on (as the name would
suggest) the visible star field.

Kent Ridge 1 is a
compact, 78 kg (171 lb) microsatellite designed primarily to
facilitate disaster monitoring and relief throughout Asia. This will
be achieved by providing detailed Earth imagery of affected regions
from LEO via two onboard hyper-spectral imaging systems, and one high
res video camera.

The spacecraft will
rely on a series of reaction wheels as well as four star trackers
mounted on the top and bottom of the satellite. The more accurate the
star trackers, the less the probe will need to rely on internal
gyroscopes to fix its position in space, which can lead to a drift in
the satellite's position over time.

Instruments aboard
satellites operating in LEO must contend with interference in the
form of light emitted and reflected from the Sun and Moon, which has
the potential to confuse a star tracker's sensors. Light bouncing
around the interior of a system can have a similar effect in throwing
off the equipment.

To reduce the
disruption, the interior and baffles of the instruments are coated in
light absorbing materials. Traditionally, black paint was employed as
the coating of choice.

At short notice, Berlin
Space Technology (BST), one of the manufacturers of the satellite,
decided to take a more innovative approach, opting to use ultra-black
Vantablack to coat the 3D-printed baffles that protect Kent Ridge 1's
navigational instruments.

According to BST, the Vantablack coating
is around 17 times less reflective than the super-black paint used to guard the delicate optics of the Hubble Space Telescope from stray light interference.

The carbon nanotube
matrix element of ultra-black Vantablack grants the material a
reflectance value of only 0.2 percent, spanning a wide range of
wavelengths. Furthermore, the coating can be applied to
engineering-grade polymers and composite materials via what is
essentially a "spray paint" application process, making the
material supremely versatile.